Growing Up North Lauderdale Has Gone From Bean Field To City In 30 Years.

April 25, 1993|By LUCY CHABOT, Staff Writer

NORTH LAUDERDALE -- When Gary Beck moved his young family to the city in 1968, he felt for a moment as if he were still on a farm in Indiana.

One day when he visited the skeleton of a building that would become his home in Kimberly Village, he had to shoo a cow out of the dining room, he said.

A quarter century later, there are no dairy cows left to roam North Lauderdale. And the green bean farms were uprooted as houses sprouted across the 4-square-mile city wedged between Tamarac and Margate.

North Lauderdale celebrates 30 years as an official city this year, but a lease on the dairy land kept homes and people from moving in until 1968. Beck, now a sergeant with the North Lauderdale Police Department, was one of the first.

``It was just barren out here,`` said Beck`s wife, Chip. ``There was nothing out here. The closest grocery store was off Broward Boulevard. But it was really nice.``

``It`s depressing,`` Gary Beck said of the change from a quiet, woodsy area to a city of more than 26,000. ``I`m not a big advocate of change. I like things to stay the way they are. I guess we all like to have familiar things around us.``

Beck said the police department where he began as a volunteer soon after he arrived grew from three or four officers in 1971 to 51 sworn officers this year.

``I could go all night and not get a call,`` Beck said. ``Most of our function was traffic control. We would sit out on 441 and write tickets to supplement the city`s coffers.``

The city was so small that City Council members served in dual roles as police chief and other department heads. The city now has 160 employees.

City Clerk C. Milli Dyer, who started with the city in 1969 and has worked for the city longer than anyone else, said she sometimes misses the old days.

``Residents used to put a white flag on their mailboxes if they had an emergency because there were no phone lines down,`` Dyer said. ``We had one police officer and no radio. I used to have to go and find him if we needed him.

``Then we started to build up real quick,`` she said. ``We might have gotten too big, I think. I liked the small, family situation.``

Col. Nathan Rood was president of North Lauderdale Development Corp., which owned most of the land, when the city was incorporated in 1963. He became the city`s first mayor and said North Lauderdale would wind up as a retirement city of 15,000 homes and apartments.

The first homes were built in 1968 off Kimberly Boulevard just west of State Road 7 and were designed for retirees. Kimberly Boulevard was named for the daughter of one of the city`s first builders, Richard Osias.

Families soon took advantage of the new community and moved in as well. Beck said he paid $17,500 for his four-bedroom, two-bathroom house in 1968. About half the city`s homes were built between 1970 and 1979, according to the census.

In 1977, North Lauderdale was known nationally for having many homes with solar energy roof panels. By that time, developer Dan Hawley, president of Tam O`Shanter Development Co., had sold about 200 solar energy homes out of a total 2,600 in the city.

No one is certain exactly how the city got its name, not even town historian Peggy Saraniero. The most likely explanation is also the most obvious -- the city is north of Fort Lauderdale and Lauderhill, she said.

In North Lauderdale`s early days, its politicians kept newspapers busy.

In 1970, one headline read: ``Charges of Political Revenge Fly After N. Lauderdale Poker Raid,`` in which the police chief and vice mayor were arrested during a poker game. Another in 1971 reads: ``Two Officials Ousted By Guilty Verdict,`` in which the city`s mayor and vice mayor became the first public officials found guilty of violating the state`s Sunshine Law.

There were stories of a water plant manager/councilman getting in a fist fight with another councilman and of the entire police force resigning after the chief was fired.

So what changed?

``Everything became professionally run, like a business,`` said Councilman Gary Frankel, an 18-year resident. ``Everyone is very careful today. That`s what happened.``

Saraniero`s husband, Michael, was elected as the city`s first mayor in 1969. They moved to Kimberly Village in 1968 when there were only 12 families. Though she was not active in the city when her husband was mayor, she began keeping every newspaper clipping involving the city after he died in 1971.

``Every night I go through the papers and I like to work on them Sunday afternoons,`` said Saraniero, 77. ``I like doing the clippings and watching the football games.``